At issue is how Treatment as Prevention is applied in the field -- in China, or here in the United States. It may not promise to end the epidemic all by itself, but it can help bring a number epidemiologist refer to as "rho" -- the number of future new infections expected to result from each current new infection -- below 1.0. When rho falls below 1.0, the mathematics of the epidemic promise the epidemic will begin to shrink naturally on its own, just as it exploded naturally in the 1980s and early 1990s, when rho may have been as high as 2 or 3. Rho is probably almost exactly 1.0 in the United States today, with the CDC reporting 45-50,000 new infections, year after year.

(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Beforeadding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)

TheBodyPRO.com is a service of Remedy Health Media, LLC, 750 3rd Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10017. TheBodyPRO.com and its logos are trademarks of Remedy Health Media, LLC, and its subsidiaries, which owns the copyright of TheBodyPRO.com's homepage, topic pages, page designs and HTML code. General Disclaimer: TheBodyPRO.com is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. The information provided through TheBodyPRO.com should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. It is not a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, consult your health care provider.